Heartless, Children Without Conscience

On July 9, 2017, Jamel Dunn, a 31-year-old, disabled African American man drowned in a retention pond in Cocoa, Florida. As he struggled and screamed for help, a group of 5 African American teens witnessed his fate.

They offered neither aid nor assistance. They sought no help and did not call 911. Instead they ridiculed and mocked Jamal. http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/crime/2017/07/20/teens-filmed-mocked-drowning-man-cocoa-police-say/495518001/.

We’re not gonna help you ***. Shouldn’t have gotten in. Drowning. What the heck. Ha,” one teen can be heard saying. “Get out of the water, you gonna die”, shouted another. Yet another screeched. “ain’t nobody fixing to help you, you dumb (expletive).” Finally, one teen declared, “he dead”, as Jamel sank beneath the water’s surface for the final time. See http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/20/us/florida-teens-drowning-man/index.htmle.

During the five days between the drowning and the discovery of Mr. Dunn’s remains, not one of the teens came forward. And even after their callous indifference to the pleas of a drowning man was discovered, they displayed little or no remorse.

We have certainly known our share of inhumanity. Reflect upon the March to the Sea, the Middle Passage, naked slave auctions, the horrors of bondage, “the noose”, police brutality and beyond.

But this level of cruelty, this degree of depravity, this scale of degeneracy, rivals those who torched our homes, raped our women and stretched our necks on poles and trees. Not even the KKK were so cruel and/or stupid as to record their wrongs.

To be sure, not all African-American youth are so heartless. Many if not most would have reacted differently. Neither is malevolence exclusive to a particular ethnicity.

Yet, we can take no comfort that this example of moral turpitude is the exception. We can no longer believe that this type of intra-racial cruelty is isolated.

Rather, similar examples of blacks hating blacks are all too common. Consider the war zone that is Chicago or any other major city. And we must resist the urge to excuse by explanation rather than resolve by action.

Diane, a good friend and socially conscious individual argues that the reason for this pitiless disregard for life is that too many black children are born to and raised by addicted parents. She reasons that parental drug consumption affects the brain development of in vitro children to the point where they are incapable of moral compassion.

Diane’s theory is not without merit. We contend however that children without conscious is more of a cultural disorder; a dearth of positive values and conduct of which drugs are a material but non-exclusive factor.

So while we can point to slavery, poverty, racism, narcotics, inadequate schools, broken families, fractured communities, or the media for our self-loathing, we can fault no one but ourselves. The Jamel Dunn matter is not an illustration of what others are doing to us. It is instead a demonstration of what we are doing to ourselves.

The white man did not make these young black men fail to render aid to and mock a drowning black man. Drugs alone did not cause their disaffection.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a culture that produces children without conscience. And it is our responsibility to fix it; whatever the cause, notwithstanding the cost.

11 Comments

Eric, why don’t you submit an editorial? Rest assured that I will give you full attribution.

Leo Hicks
August 11, 2017

What do you think is the solution?

Eric Christian Hansen
August 8, 2017

What I see is not the kids, but the adults in our society who are the culpret. It is the adults who make these “water traps” for people of all color, and situation and circumstance to drown in. [Not only people, but animals too.]

I call it the “La Brea Tar Pit Syndrome”.
Just because God (long ago) made a trap for people and animals to fall into, our society today believes it is their duty to offer the same kind of trap for people and animals to fall into.

STOP PLAYING GOD AMERICA!!!!

America has a severe character flaw. [No, I don’t think God has a severe character flaw]. I see it everywhere I go.
It is the kind of stupidity that makes me want to move to France (or some odd place) and get away from this American stupidity plague (of sorts). God I hope I never catch that plague!!

From churches to city parks to city squares to housing communities to golf courses to cemeteries, you name it, the stupidity is there in full force i.e. “water traps”.

It is like the people who run this country (from the small towns to the big cities to the counties and states and entire U.S.) woke up one morning from being out drinking all night, and have never sobered up. You’ve heard of “numb nuts”. Well, most Americans have “numb brains”.

If I could do something about his plague, I would. But it is so widespread, “from sea to shining sea”, that the only thing that can be done is PRAY. PRAY that the helpless people and animals in our country will not fall victim to the “water traps” set for them by our American Society

Hello Leo — hope you’re still serving aces on those courts. I would hope that any one of these kids, if they had been alone, would have jumped in and saved Mr. Dunn. It’s really difficult, especially for children on the verge of becoming adults, to fight the peer pressure of a mob mentality like that. I’m in no way excusing their actions, in fact in a situation like this I think their actions were criminal, but I can appreciate how difficult it is to think you won’t look “cool” when you’re with a group of friends. My hope is that this wakes some of these kids up and makes them realize that this kind of cool isn’t what you want to be and that these aren’t the kind friends you want to have – a sort of rock bottom so many addicts have to experience before they have the will power to turn their lives around. I pray that this incident doesn’t haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Thanks and I agree with your analysis regarding the influence of peer pressure. Let’s hit sometimes.

John Henry
August 1, 2017

Amen, my brother for the insight into a generation of angry youth who didn’t have a generation of “village parenting” , not to mention secure two(2) parenting commitments ! We have produced some very hard hearts that didn’t/couldn’t read the memo, or had any “seeds of vision” planted, and/or watered in their lives,,,Luv the write my brother !